Pierre Gasly says that Alpine Formula 1 team’s latest upgrade package allows its drivers to be a “more pushy” as they fight in the midfield pack.
The new parts were used by Esteban Ocon in China before Gasly received them in Miami, where the A524s finished 10th and 12th, with Ocon logging the team’s first point of the season.
As well as aero benefits the package created a valuable weight saving, the cars having been over the limit since the start of the season.
“I think weight is true lap time, you can quantify like roughly 10 kilos is three-tenths per lap,” said Gasly. “So it’s quite easy to quantify. But then even when you’re talking about a few kilos over a full race distance in terms of energy you put in the tyre, it does affect it.
“So it helps you in performance, degradation, all around. In terms of car balance, not a huge difference. You see with the floor, it’s a bit more downforce as well.
“It’s just like a tiny bit, but at the moment in that midfield just a tiny bit allows us to race a bit more, be a bit more pushy sometimes, be able to overtake or defend.
“And I think that was the whole point of the race. We had some great battles, I managed to even pass [Fernando] Alonso at some point when I didn’t really expect to fight with him. We just seem to be a bit more in the mix.”
Gasly conceded that Ocon’s point was a boost for the whole team.
“I think we are just showing we’re making a lot of progress,” he said. “Very positive for the team to open the account and get a get a point out of that race. The whole weekend was positive, I finished ninth in the sprint, as well.
“So yeah, a lot of positives, and great motivation for the guys now, I hope we can keep pushing that direction, and hopefully things can start coming a bit more our way on our side of the garage.”
He added: “We keep trying things, and it feels like at the moment the car is not really quite giving me the stuff that I like. But we’re slowly getting in the right direction. So yeah, it’s slowly coming, but hopefully we can see us fighting for top 10s a bit more consistently now.”
Adam Cooper F1 